What a to do?

0 Locks, 1 Mile. Now moored in front of the NIA.

The roof of Gypsy Rover shows the depth of the snow still at midday.

We arose to find ourselves well and truly covered in snow again this morning, close on 2” of the stuff. As we have been on our present moorings for 48 hours our plan was to move up to the Black Country Museum for a few days, returning on Tuesday. Looking at the long range forecasts we came to the conclusion that we could find ourselves iced in once more making it difficult for us to visit the Boat and Caravan show at the NEC on Thursday. 

Old Turns Junction in the centre of Birmingham.

Cambrian Wharf are supposedly 14 day moorings so we walked around there to see what moorings were available. We found that there were 4 empty berths so we headed back to the boat with the intention of moving there. Before actually going onto the moorings we stopped at the water point where we spoke to another boater who suggested that we should talk to Rachel in the BW office. Dot did this and came back with the news that BW  were not considering Continuous Cruisers again because in actual fact there was only 1 mooring available on Cambrian Wharf whereas the others had been rented out as Winter moorings. As we required 2 moorings for Uccello and ourselves Rachel suggested we return to our original mooring and she would advise the BW Patrol Officer that we are being given dispensation to overstay the mooring restrictions.

Gas Street Basin Birmingham.

We decided to move to the other side where we are now getting a little sunshine.  The moorings on the other side are in the shadow of the modern apartments and still covered in snow this evening, whereas at the moment we are clear.  The temperature tonight is forecast to drop to –5⁰C so we will see if the canal freezes again.

Part of Birmingham's waterfront.

2102 locks, 4102.61 miles, 79 tunnels, 130 swing bridges and 58 lift bridges since Nov 2006